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Our understanding of the mechanisms relating pubertal timing to mental health problems via brain development remains rudimentary.

Longitudinal data was sourced from ∼11,500 children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (age 9–13years). We built models of “brain age” and “puberty age” as indices of brain and pubertal development. Residuals from these models were used to index individual differences in brain development and pubertal timing, respectively. Mixed-effects models were used to investigate associations between pubertal timing and regional and global brain development. Mediation models were used to investigate the indirect effect of pubertal timing on mental health problems via brain development.

Earlier pubertal timing was associated with accelerated brain development, particularly of subcortical and frontal regions in females and …